Limitation in growth time of stimulated Compton scattering in x-ray regime

Abstract
We present a classical theory of stimulated Compton scattering by an intense relativistic electron beam. The growth rates in the x‐ray regime are obtained for two types of excitation: (i) an incident electromagnetic wave and (ii) a spatially rippled static magnetic field. Nonlinear spread of the beam velocity distribution by the pump field reduces the growth rate. The limiting growth rate depends only on the beam quality and becomes ∼1 μsec−1 using the best available beam.